Well don’t panic. Yet! Hopscotch is here to help. Communion buying seems to be getting earlier and earlier, no sooner is Santa gone back to Lapland than the pretty white dresses start to appear in the shop windows.

Mayo Roscommon Hospice Let Love Shine a Light ecumenical service takes place on Sunday January 17 at 3.45pm at the Rest and Care Centre in Knock. All those for whom lights are sponsored will be remembered and prayed for at the service. Refreshments served after the service. All are welcome.

Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary has opened a ‘Holy Door’ at Knock Shrine as Catholics across the world have started to observe and celebrate Pope Francis’ historic ‘Year of Mercy’. The world’s media and tens of thousands of people gathered in St Peter’s Basilica on December 8 to watch Pope Francis open the Holy Door in Rome, a tradition that dates back to the 1400s.

Since his ordination in 2010, Fr Martin Whelan has become a familiar face to the thousands who attend Mass in Galway Cathedral on a regular basis. In addition to his work as curate, assisting parish priest Canon Peter Rabbitte, he is also busy with his role as diocesan secretary. Fr Whelan is one of a new breed of younger generation priests who are firmly making their mark on life in the Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh, and Kilfenora

My dear Irish brethren, I write this piece with deepest sorrow in my heart that, once again, innocent people have been killed by those who claim to be Muslims and claim to belong to the faith of Islam.

When Charles Dickens first visited the United States in January 1842, the popularity of his books was such that he was mobbed by adoring crowds, feted and dined as the major celebrity that he undoubtedly was, and was guest of honour at a famous Valentine’s Ball in New York attended by 3,000 of the city’s great and good.